Türkiye has pursued a consistent framework over the last 15 years, focusing on the country’s development, growth and infrastructure completion.
Over the past decade, Türkiye has increasingly focused its infrastructure and development efforts on strengthening its diplomatic presence and expanding international relations. While the Transportation and Health Ministries were the most prominent during the first decade of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) government, today the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Ministries have emerged as the most influential, reflecting the party’s evolving priorities.
Türkiye is a nation shaped by an imperial legacy and a long tradition of coexistence with diverse peoples and cultures. Looking back over the past 200 years, Christians, Maronites, Armenians, Jews and numerous sects, beliefs and cultures coexisted peacefully within the Ottoman Empire. In fact, the survival of many Christian sub-denominations today can be credited to the protection they found on Ottoman lands.
Stability at home, in region
Beyond its imperial heritage, Türkiye is also a country founded on commerce, with stability serving as a cornerstone of its policy.
Türkiye’s core regional vision is straightforward: stability at home fosters stability abroad. A secure and prosperous Türkiye strengthens its neighbors, expands trade and drives shared growth. In turn, this creates a foundation for lasting regional security and development.
During the Syrian civil war, Türkiye stood for fairness, justice and the demands of the Syrian people, never embracing marginal ideologies.
In Syria’s democratization process, Iran and Russia took a different path. Iran prioritized its own national interests over the future of the Syrian people. However, in the end, the Syrian people chose their country’s unity and effectively expelled Russia and Iran as occupiers.
Israel’s doctrine of destruction
Three competing visions currently vie for influence in the region: Israel’s doctrine of destruction, Iran’s chaos strategy and Türkiye’s model of cooperative stability.
If Israel’s approach succeeds, the likely outcome would be the systematic destabilization of regional states – from Yemen and Lebanon to Syria, Iraq and Iran – potentially reducing entire nations to conditions comparable to Gaza’s protracted crisis. Such an outcome would not only devastate the Middle East but would constitute a global security threat of unprecedented scale.
Iran’s chaos strategy
Iran’s alternative – maintaining regional chaos as a buffer against perceived Israeli and American threats – has equally proven unsustainable. After a quarter-century of this failed experiment, Tehran’s strategy stands exposed as ineffective, leaving its neighbors fractured while failing to deliver genuine security for Iran itself.
The most viable thesis in the region is Türkiye’s: a focus on stabilizing both its own mainland and neighboring countries, backed by significant efforts.
Syria is entering a critical phase as a sovereign nation-state, growing more stable with each passing day. At the same time, the terrorist organization PKK’s retreat from terrorism signals a safer and more secure future for Türkiye. As Türkiye’s stability strengthens, this sense of security and the momentum for stabilization naturally extend to Iraq and Syria as well.
Türkiye’s two decades of ambitious infrastructure projects, its strong military, and resilient economy – combined with the neutralization of terrorist threats – reflect a vision that goes beyond simply making Türkiye terror-free. The broader goal is to transform the entire region into a zone of lasting peace and security, free from terrorism.
Syria’s reconstruction and Iraq’s return to stability through development also reflect aspects of Türkiye’s policy, which emphasizes regional security and stability.
Ultimately, among the three competing theses in the region – Israel’s, Iran’s and Türkiye’s – the only lasting, fair and just approach benefiting regional nations is Türkiye’s vision of being a stabilizing force. And this thesis appears poised for success.
